Just Another Adventure
by corisco88
Summary: Sonic and his friends team up to stop Doctor Eggman once and for all. Will they succeed? Will Sonic be able to handle everything on his own? Only this kind of adventure can tell.
1. Chapter 1 - The Start of it All

As he ran at morning, a blue hedgehog chased a round hovercraft as fast as he could.

"Hey, Eggman, giving up already?"

"Not by any means you little pin cushion!"

Doctor Eggman started to launch small rockets at Sonic, who easily dodged them and started running faster. After reaching the Egg Mobile and running side by side with it, he turned and started to run backwards, without slowing down.

"So…?" he said to the mustachioed man.

"**So** what?"

"So now that I proved I'm faster than your Egg Mobile 2.5 or whatever name you gave it, slow down a bit. You can't outrun me and you know tha…"

Suddenly, some kind of mechanical hand came out of the hovercraft and knocked him out, making he start falling in a crack nearby. He was going to fall in a river some meters below, which could be a relief for some, but Sonic couldn't swim, and that water made everything worse. He screamed as he fell down until a hand grabbed his.

"Tails…?" he asked slightly opening his closed eye.

"Not exactly" Knuckles was holding his hand, but his hand was also being held up. And that was by no one other than Tails.

"Hey Sonic!"

"Tails! Knux! Thank you guys!"

"Don't worry, we're here to help if you need!" While saying that, Tails had a big smile in his face. Knuckles, who was more serious, smiled too, but more slightly and quickly returned to a more serious expression knowing Eggman was still out there. They safely landed on the side of the crack. Knuckles looked around for a moment but couldn't identify the place they were in.

"Where are we?"

"That's Dusty Desert. We've never been here by the way. We'd better walk around this side even with the risk of falling. The other one is full of quicksand!" Knuckles started walking and wished he could answer this by himself. Sometimes it seemed like Tails knew everything.

"We've never been here? Funny, I though this place looked familiar… Well whatever. Where are we going?" Sonic wandered as he took a step closer to his best friend.

"Well, I thought of going in that direction" Tails pointed his finger to the South. "If we catch a ride on a boat or something like that we can reach Seaside Hill. However, it'll take some time. I'd take us flying but my tails are getting a bit sore and…"

"That's okay, Tails" the hedgehog replied smiling.

Knuckles came closer to listen to the conversation too.

"So we're going to Seaside Hill?"

"Yes Knuckles, this is where Cream lives with her mother Vanilla. Amy and Big should be there too."

Sonic now had a weird expression in his face, and his friends couldn't tell if he was happy or scared. This was the face he made when someone mentioned Amy. He was happy to see his friend, but she was always saying he was her boyfriend or just insisting a lot for him to be. He was hoping she wouldn't be in that mood as the sun rose higher in the sky and they walked a long way.

Meanwhile, Cream and Amy played a hide and seek game in the garden while Big was fishing in the lake. Cream looked for Amy, who was hiding. She looked everywhere until she found her best friend ducking behind a tree. She ran as fast as she could to the house's wall. Amy did the same and, while she was clearly faster, she slowed down to let Cream, who was younger, win.

"1, 2, 3, Amy! I won!"

"Congratulations Cream!"

Big appeared with a cheerful expression and a fish in his hand.

"Look, maybe you can ask for your mom to cook it…" Big said as he gave Cream the fish.

"Let's go inside, then." She answered.

The group entered the small but beautiful wooden house and Vanilla came from the kitchen.

"Do you want cookies?"

Everyone cheered and grabbed one cookie each.

"Mom, can you cook this for dinner?" Cream showed the big fish in her hands.

"Of course, dear." She said while blinking in Big's direction.

Amy and Cream went to the living room, but Big hesitated a bit.

"Can I have one more?" He asked pointing at the cookies.

"Sure!" Vanilla answered happily.

Big then got one more cookie, and one more, and another one, until there were only three cookies left. He then went to the living room too with a smile in his face and a bunch of cookies in his hands. At first Vanilla was just staring, surprised, but later smiled at the cat and went back to the kitchen to clean it.

The group spent the whole day talking about various things such as flowers, fishes, chao, cute things, ice cream, Sonic, fishing, sightseeing, travelling, Froggy, and others. In no time, the room was filled with phrases like "Aren't chao the cutest thing ever? Cheese and Chocola are the cutest ones!", "I lost Froggy yesterday, but I found him later" and "Isn't Sonic wonderful?" As the night came in along with a baked fish smell, the doorbell rang much to everyone's surprise.

"Hm? Who could it be?" Vanilla wondered as she went to the hall and opened the door.

"Sonic!" She said seeing the Blue Blur in front of her.

Amy immediately rushed forward and hugged him.

"Sonic, you're back!"

"Yes… Anh… It's good to see you again Amy."

"Is it? I mean, of course it is…" She said, blushing slightly.

The team explained what had happened and how Eggman had come back.

"No surprise." Amy said.

"Yes, that bad man always comes back…" Cream sighted.

"And that's bad news! Right?" Big asked.

"Yes, Big. And we thought maybe you could help us." Amy smiled at Tails when she heard this.

"We're always up to adventure! But you stay here this night. Is that okay Vanilla?" when Vanilla confirmed, Amy continued "Come eat some fish, Big caught it just this morning!

The group sat and started eating the delicious fish that would be followed by some delicious rice, some delicious salad and some delicious cake. They weren't sure what Eggman was up to or where they would go next, but they were sure of one thing: Vanilla's food was delicious.


	2. Chapter 2 - Two Organizations United

Inside of a large and tall building, a young lady walked around the corridors going to her room. Reaching the door, a guard waited for her.

"Agent Rouge?"

"That's me. What do you want?"

"Well… the commander would like to talk to you…"

"Tell the commander I have things to do. He needs to wait some hours until he can talk to me."

"But agent Rouge, it's urgent. You should take Shadow and Omega too."

"Ah, fine…!"

Rouge walked into the room and went to the dorms. The door was locked.

"Shadow! Shaaaaadow! Jeez… What is he doing? He can't be sleeping."

The bat continued calling until she lost her patience and kicked the door to open it.

"Heck, where are you Shadow!? I don't have the whole day here, you know!?"

Rouge looked around and noticed Shadow wasn't on the dorms, neither was Omega. She looked everywhere but couldn't find them.

"Whatever… If those two are getting into trouble, that's not because of me. I'm pretty sure I don't need to worry about the Ultimate Lifeform and the best of the E-Series robots. They can take care of themselves. But I'll need to explain the situation to the Commander."

Rouge went down some other three or four corridors and went up to the last floor on the elevator, there entering a door at the end of another corridor.

"Commander…"

Commander Abraham Tower was looking through the window and wasn't seeing Rouge.

"Oh, yes, Rouge, Shadow, Omega, I have an important mission for you."

"Ehr… Commander… Shadow and Omega disappeared."

The Commander turned to Rouge with a surprised face.

"What? But how could they have simply disappeared that way?

"I don't know, but I've looked everywhere and they're just not here."

"Well, once you find them, inform them your mission"

"And what is our mission?"

"The Chaotix have contacted us informing Eggman has appeared again. We had better find him and defeat him for good before the situation gets harsh. The Chaotix are going to invade Eggman's new base, which we discovered yesterday, with the help of the traveller and ex-Chaotix member Mighty the Armadillo, along with his companion Ray. Meanwhile, you sneak into the center of the base and discover his plans. We'll contact you and show where you need to go by these G.U.N. communicators"

"Fine by me."

"Vector can talk to you by this TV here"

Abraham turned on a big screen where Vector's face appeared.

"Hi again, commander. So, your name is Rouge, isn't it? I'm sure I've seen you before."

"A few times, but we've never talked directly."

"So, are you OK with the mission?"

"Sure. Easy stuff. I'm used to stealth missions. After all, I'm not called the Greatest Thief in the World for no reason, right?"

"Thief?"

"Never mind…"

"Okay… So, if you need some help, Espio said he'd like to work with stealth too, so if you need, he's there."

"Help is welcome all the time. At least most of the time. Let's do this: We go with Espio and you go with Omega, as he would only be a trouble in something where we need to be… sneaky."

"Deal. I'll inform the others."

The transmission cut off and Rouge went out to look for Shadow and Omega.

"Where could those two be…?"

Vector walked through the old agency. The Chaotix hadn't been having a lot of work these days and Charmy often broke things accidentally with his carefree, energetic and reckless attitude, causing them to need repair they couldn't really afford most of the time. The little bee had been feeling a little bad about this and trying to be more careful and attentive. Espio came out of the living room while Vector was thinking about this.

"So what's the deal?"

"You will work with Rouge and Shadow while Omega will come with the rest of us instead."

"Good. I'll be very useful in their team with my invisibility. Personally, I prefer this kind of mission, where I can put my abilities to good use. But I'm going to be honest. I'd like working with you a thousand times more than with them. I don't dislike Shadow and we've worked together before, but I don't have that much sympathy toward Rouge."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. But we'll need G.U.N.'s help for that."

"Hey! Vector, Espio!"

"Charmy?" Espio turned to see the cute little kid coming in with an excited expression.

"Yeah, it's me! I ran into Shadow and Omega when I was playing outside! They were going to G.U.N.! Don't you think they are cool?"

Some seconds later, the telephone rang and Espio still had a somewhat worried face thinking Charmy was looking up to the wrong people. Vector answered.

"Chaotix Detective Agency, can I help you?"

"Good afternoon, Vector, it's me, Commander Abraham Tower again"

"What's the matter, Abraham?"

"Shadow and Omega can't be found anywhere in here, they're gone. Rouge is looking for them but…"

"Charmy just saw the two going back to your headquarters, by the way."

"Oh, that's great, thank you Vector! I wander what these two were doing…"

"You're welcome."

As Vector put the phone down he and the other Chaotix went to the living room to talk to Mighty and Ray and prepare themselves for their new mission.


	3. Chapter 3 - Problems in Other Worlds

At an island, Southern Island, a little raccoon girl lived. She was building a boat at the coast to visit her best friend.

"Oh, come on! You've gotta work!"

As Marine tried to settle the boat, she could only make herself more impatient.

"All right, this time you're gonna work!" She hit the boat the hardest she could and its engine started to roar. "Ha, ha! I'm a genius, I built a boat!" she cheered until realizing she had forgotten the breaks "Oh, boy, again? I always forget the breaks!" After some more time of work, she finished the little boat. "There it is! Marine-Mobile or simply the MM!"

As she got into the MM, Marine rushed to Blaze's Kingdom crossing the little sea that separated it from her island. Blaze was waiting for her in the beach and staring at the horizon thinking when she would get to an adventure again. She then saw a little figure coming in her direction from the seas.

"YAHOOOOOO! BLAAZEEEE! CHECK OUT WHAT I BUILT! IT WAS BY MYSEEELF!" the figure yelled.

"Good one Marine! You are getting better!"

"YEAH, I THINK SOOO!"

As Marine got closer, she finally reached the coast and jumped on the thick sand.

"And here is Captain Marine with her super MM!"

"MM?"

"Marine-Mobile"

"Oh."

"So, why did you call me, sailor Blaze?" Asked Marine, pretending to be a captain as always.

"It looks like we could visit Sonic in his dimension. There's nothing important happening here right now, so I can let someone taking care of the kingdom while we're away. I'll talk to Gardon about it."

"Yahoo! It was already time for that!"

Marine rushed to the royal palace hardly even waiting for the purple cat and entered it. The guards already knew her and let her run through it freely.

"Oh, hello, how are you Mari…?

Marine rushed through the corridor without even looking at Gardon, while Blaze stopped to talk to the little Koala. After some minutes, she went to a small room with seven emeralds in it, Marine jumping in excitement. She got the emeralds, known as Sol Emeralds and used them to warp to Sonic's dimension once again.

In a destroyed landscape a light grey hedgehog flew around until he landed where near an old Eggman hideout. Eggman Nega was causing trouble again, and that was bad news. He walked through an old building where Nega was. A few minutes later he heard a very familiar voice coming from a corridor to the side.

"So, Silver, what are you doing here? You shouldn't invade other's homes."

"Good advice, but in case you don't remember, this isn't yours anyway, you just found it."

"It doesn't matter, my sentry robots will take care of you while I operate my newest machine."

"What are you up to?"

"Just travelling. To the past. I have some things to do there."

"Oh no, not again!"

Before the robots could even reach them, Silver jumped into Nega, causing him to be transported to the past along with him and appear in a beautiful beach of green landscapes and a blue ocean.

"What is this place...? Oh, great, here we go again…"


	4. Chapter 4 - Unusual Help

As the sun rose in the sky in another sunny day, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Cream and Big prepared for their journey. As they left Cream's home they waved goodbye to Vanilla and Chocola, Cream taking Cheese with her. After one hour of walking, the group reached a place known as Casino City.

"So what's up with this place?" asked Amy looking at all the neon lights flashing and all the bingo tables.

"It's a city composed entirely out of a giant casino. It has many regions we've been to before like Spring Yard, Casino Night Zone, Bingo Highway and Casino Park. It's called Casino City or Casinopolis." Tails replied.

"Interesting." Amy looked around some more "So where do we go now?"

"We won't actually be crossing Casinopolis, just walking near it. Our goal is a region crossing the river at the city's edge. It's called Wild Canyon. Maybe you've heard of it. It's connected to other higher canyons like Sky Canyon or Rail Canyon. Quite near that famous monument, the Gigan Rocks."

"Oh, the Gigan Rocks, much known between treasure hunters. It is said there are five relics there, but that's for another day." Knuckles said staring at the horizon. "But, Tails, what is exactly our goal here?"

"Well, I built this improvised tracker yesterday. It's not perfect as I didn't have much time, but it says Eggman is somewhere around Ice Cap, that group of icy caves. But it's very far away, so be prepared for a long journey."

After long hours of restless walk seeing lots of lights and later on, clouds, the group started to feel tired. As they reached Wild Canyon, Knuckles looked around, amazed.

"Wow! I **need **to stop here and treasure hunt, even if it's only for some minutes."

The group sat down and started eating some cookies Vanilla had packed for them. Knuckles rapidly ate a cookie or two and started digging some meters away. A few minutes after, the group had just finished eating when they heard Knuckles shouting in happiness.

"Yes! I knew this place was good for treasure hunting! I want to see Rouge's face when she sees **that**!

"What did you find, Mr. Knuckles?" Cream walked in his direction looking at the small rock tablet in his hands.

"Well, it's obviously a… a… what is that? I can't really figure out… I've never seen this kind of writing before."

"Wow! Knux doesn't know what something related to history and treasure hunting is? Better take him to hospital!" Sonic joked.

"It's much older than most of the ancient languages I can translate. Maybe Tikal will know what it is."

"Hey, we haven't seen her in a while!" Sonic said.

"Who is Tikal? Do you know, Cheese?" Cream looked at Cheese as he said his usual "chao, chao."

"Tikal is Knuckles' ancestor, Cream" Amy said "She's a ghost."

"A-a ghost…?

"Don't worry, Cream. She's nice and you'll like her! She loves chao and lives with them in the Chao Garden along with her friend Chaos. He might be a bit… scary, but you'll see he's just as nice and chao-loving as her."

The group walked for a long time until they reached a green field with lots of chao and all kinds of decorations and chao toys. Chao racing, swimming, flying and even fighting.

"This… This place is…" Cream couldn't even express her feelings in that moment. "This place is wonderful!"

"Welcome to the Chao Garden, cream!" Amy knew from the very first moment she met Cream that she would love the Chao Garden as soon as she saw it.

The group wandered around playing with the chao. Big approached a dark, angry looking chao with pointy teeth and picked it up. "Come here little chao!" In a split second, the chao turned and bit Big's hand, making him try to throw the chao away. As much as Big shook his hand, the chao wouldn't let go of it. An apparently young echidna wearing seemingly old clothes adorned with gold easily but carefully took the chao out of his hand, making it immediately calm down and hug her. Big just stared at her, but then smiled and said happily "Hi, Tikal!"

The teenager put the chao down as she greeted her old friend "Hello, Big. It's been long since we met for the last time. And I see you brought the others too!" The group walked over to Big and Tikal and shook hands with her.

"Hello, what's your name?"

"I'm Cream. Cream the Rabbit. I love chao so I think we'll be good friends."

"I think so!"

The two newly introduced girls shook hands and talked about chao for almost a hour as Cheese took a great time with his fellow chao in the Chao Garden. After some time, what seemed to be a water puddle entered the green lands coming from what seemed to be some kind of cave.

"Hey, it's Chaos! Tails was the first one to see the water slowly slipping through the grass like a snake. It then formed one humanoid creature with bright green eyes, with a transparent water body. "Hi, Chaos!"

The ancient creature waved his hand to greet the group, as he couldn't speak. Only Tikal had the mysterious ability to understand Chaos' language.

"Well, as much as we're having fun and we're glad to see you, we came here for a reason and we'll need to go soon, okay?" Sonic said. "It's bad we couldn't spend much time with you, especially Chaos, but the night is coming and we'd better go. But first Knuckles needs to ask you a favor."

"I understand. What is it?"

Knuckles showed her the writings and she carefully looked at every detail in them.

"Those are writings from the ancient Nocturnes! I think I can translate… Let's see what it says…

The group didn't make a sound while Tikal translated the inscriptions. After all, what did they say? They knew this wasn't exactly what they were looking for but now everyone was curious to discover what it said. And the Chao Garden was in the middle of the route to Ice Cap, after all…


	5. Chapter 5 - A Mysterious Shadow

"So, Commander, you said Charmy saw Shadow and Omega coming towards here?"

"Exactly. But they haven't arrived yet, which is strange. It's been a whie since the Chaotix called."

"I'll go look for them."

Rouge walked the main corridors and sighed. She started thinking what those two could possibly be doing and why they hadn't told anyone about it. She was ready to leave G.U.N. when she heard a woman call her name.

"Miss Rouge..."

Rouge looked to the left and saw the secretary looking at her. She went over to the desk feeling curious. The secretaries at G.U.N. hardly ever talked to her.

"Yes?"

"Shadow called. He told you to go to Station Square, if you can."

"Well, then tell him I'm already doing that and ask him why in the name of God he disappeared like that!"

"Sure..."

"Well, I'm leaving to go look for him then. Have a nice day."

"Same for you." the secretary answered, looking up Shadow's number.

Rouge left through the main doors and ran towards Station Square. It was just a few blocks away from G.U.N.'s headquarters, so she arrived there pretty fast. She looked around for a while but couldn't spot neither Shadow nor Omega.

"Sigh... Where are they now?

Suddenly, she felt a hand pushing her to an alley.

"AH! Shadow! Why did you...!"

"Shut up! Be quiet!"

Rouge lowered her voice, but still looked angry.

"Now, don't you tell me to shut up!"

"Ok, sorry, but please be silent."

"Shadow, what are you doing? Why did you leave like this, without telling anyone?"

"Do I have to tell everyone when I go out now?"

"Yes!"

Shadow's phone ringed. He looked startled and answered as quickly as he could. It was on the speakerphone.

"Mr. Shadow, Miss Rouge asked me to call you back and ask you why in the name of God you left without telling anyone..."

"Ok. She's here with me right now, I'll talk to her."

Shadow turned off his phone and looked angry.

"I should have kept this thing turned off."

"Oh, so that's why no one could talk to you. You left out of the blue AND left your phone turned off?"

"Look, I have enough maturity to take care of myself."

"It doesn't matter. The Commander gave us a mission. If it were urgent, what would I do? I had no idea where you were and no one could talk to you. That coupled with the fact Eggman is out there, you could have been kidnapped!"

"Eggman is back? Well, that's worrying, but not for me! I don't get kidnapped by an old fat man! I can defend myself very well! Sigh, anyway... A mission, you said? What is it?"

"Like I said, Eggman is back. We need to sneak into his base."

"The three of us? You're giving Omega a stealth mission?"

"No. We're teaming up with the Chaotix on this one. We'll do a sort of "trade". Espio comes with us and Omega goes with them."

"I see... So that's the two of us and Espio trying to get inside. And the others...?"

"Vector, Charmy, Omega and two old friends of the Chaotix are going to invade the base from the front door to distract the robots and security systems."

"Ok. Sounds easy."

"Not so much. G.U.N. managed to track the place down and it's huge. It won't be easy to find our way and the other guys will need to hold on for a long time."

"Well, I don't know about the others, but I'm sure Omega can do it. He's a beast on both offense and defense."

"Speaking of the devil, where's Omega?"

"Well... Listen..."

Shadow looked to the entrance of the alley to see if no one was nearby and then pushed Rouge a bit further, ducking behind a trashcan.

"Why are you so mysterious today? Just tell me what happened already!"

"Shhhhh... Listen... Me and Omega went to Emerald Hill. Remember how the Chaos Emeralds had disappeared the other day?"

"Yeah, I think I saw that on the news... Probably one of the first things in this city that were stolen and it wasn't by me."

"Omega thought he had detected one there. We did find an emerald..."

"Great, we should tell the Commander right away!"

"No, wait. Problem is... It doesn't look real. Doesn't have that mystical glow the real ones do. But the only way I thought of checking was by doing Chaos Control."

"And did it work?"

"Yes. But the thing is... I'm the only person who can do Chaos Control without an emerald, so it doesn't matter."

"Hmm..."

"And then we came here to see if we could find Sonic..."

"Wait, YOU were actively looking for Sonic?"

"Yes. We need him to check if that Emerald is real. It's important for us to know. If it is real, we need to give it back to the museum where it belongs. If it isn't..."

"Then something stinky is going on..."

"Yes."

"And where is Omega? You didn't answer."

"I tried to convince him to stay here and wait for you, but he decided to go look for Sonic on his own. I have no idea where he is now."

"See? That's why I get so mad when you don't tell me where you're going! Also, a great question here: WHY didn't you call me? And why is that such a big secret? I mean, why are we hiding and whispering right now?"

"Omega was going to wake you up, but in the end we didn't call you because we thought it would be nice to have someone there in case someone important happened and the Commander needed us. Which did happen, so I'm happy I thought of that. As for the hiding, I just didn't want everyone to see the two of us talking here for so long. We are too close to G.U.N. and most people know we're from there. I don't want anyone suspecting something big is going on. Because when fake Chaos Emeralds start appearing, there's definitely something big going on."

"I get it. Now that I think about it, it's a good idea. I wouldn't want people spreading rumors and making a fuss either, even if they were right. But the two of us coming out of a dark ally already seems pretty suspicious on it's own."

"You're pretty much a professional at stealth. I' sure you can get us out of here without anyone noticing."

Rouge smiled.

The Chaotix were in the living room, having a nice chat.

"We saw some greay stuff there, me and Ray! Such a beautiful scenery! Too bad it's so far away. I love travelling to all kinds of places. I guess that comes from reading so much, you know? It's fun to imagine all of those places and adventures going on in fiction, but seeing them in real life is the best!"

"Looks like you two really had fun in this world trip of yours. We missed you! I'm glad we'll be able to talk more often now. Maybe you can even rejoin the Agency." Vector winked.

"That would be great, Vector, I'm looking forward to it. Can Ray join too or is he too young?"

"Well, if Charmy is a member, I guess age is not a problem". Espio said, before talking a sip of coffee. He placed his empty mug on a table. "Well, as fun as it is to share stories, we have something important to do tomorrow and should prepare."

"We already have our G.U.N. communicators prepared." Vector answered.

"But, don't you think we... Especially you should prepare ourselves physically?"

"Well, maybe."

"Espio is right." Mighty interfered. "Our mission is nothing like taking a kitty out of a tree. We'll need to hold back those robots for a good while."

"Speaking of this..." Eveyone looked at Ray, who was blushing a bit. "Wouldn't it be good to take some coats...? I mean, Mighty told me the base is on Ice Cap. It should be pretty cold..."

"How could we forget? Thanks for the reminder, Ray!"

Ray smiled at Vector, looking a little more confident. The little squirrel had always been really shy and reluctant to give his opinions. Having someone listen to what he had to say was always a relief.

"Time to exercise then, I guess. We'll have a long day tomorrow, Charmy, can you get us five coats please? Two small ones, one medium and two large."

"Sure, vector!"


	6. Chapter 6 - Flowers and Tea

It was already 6 p.m. and Silver had been walking since noon. His feet were getting tired, but he knew he had to find Dr. Eggman Nega. His thoughts raced while he walked the grassy beach.

"Why did this happen? If I time travelled with him... Shouldn't Nega have appeared here as well?"

After reaching the top of a small hill, the hedgehog stopped and decided to take a break before going on. He laid down on the grass looking at the sunset and tried to decide if he was going to stay there for the rest of the day or walk some more. If only there were someone there to tell him where to go.

"The sky here is so much prettier than in the future... It's a shame it ended like it did." he looked around some more. "What could Nega want in a place like this?"

"Hello."

Silver, who was getting lost in his thoughts, came back to reality and looked back to see who had talked to him. It was a young woman carrying a basket of fruit.

"What are you doing lying in the grass like this? Are you lost?"

"No... I mean, yes, but..."

"You look tired."

"Yeah, I've been walking the whole day..."

"Is your home very far away from here?"

Silver hesitated. He had no idea how to explain his situation.

"I don't exatly have one..."

She looked surprised.

"You don't have a home? But do you have a family?"

"Not really."

"Poor thing... I can take you to my house if you want. It's just some hundreds of meters away. You look hungry."

"Thank you, but I have something really important to do."

"Can't that wait a bit?"

"I don't think so."

"Where are you going?"

"I... I don't know. Where am I?"

"Seaside Hill..."

"I've never been here before."

"I have a map at my house. That should help you. Are you sure you don't want to come?"

"Well... If you have a map then I guess I should."

The two started walking.

"What is your name, by the way?"

"Silver."

"It's a pleasure to meet you Silver. I'm Vanilla."

Silver looked at the basket Vanilla was carrying.

"What are these?"

"Pitayas."

"Isn't that heavy?"

"Yes. But I'm used to it."

"I can carry it for you."

"If you insist..."

Vanilla handed over the basket to Silver, who looked a bit surprised when he picked it up. It was way heavier than he expected it to be.

"Just wait a second..." He asked.

"That's too heavy for you, I can carry it until we..."

Silver used his psychokinesis to lift the basket into the air, surrounded by a light blue glow.

"That's amazing!"

"What? This? That's nothing."

"...Do you happen to know Sonic?"

"Sonic? The blue one?"

"Who else would it be?"

"How did you know? Do you know him? Do you know where he is?"

"Sonic had told me of a friend who could lift things with his mind before. I guess he was talking about you. He left to look for Dr. Eggman. My daughter and his friends went with him."

"Who is your daughter?"

"Her name is Cream."

"I don't think I know her... But where exactly did they go?"

"This, I don't know."

"You don't know where your daughter went?"

"I trust Sonic and his friends very much. If Eggman is out there, I know they can protect her better than an old lady like me."

"I see... Did you at least see in what direction they went?"

"No, I'm sorry."

Silver sighed. If Eggman was really back, Eggman Nega could be near him, whether it be to work together, or against each other. He wasn't sure, but finding Sonic would've been a start. At least it was someone else who had fought Nega before.

"We arrived just in time, it's almost night."

Vanilla walked over to the door and opened it.

"Chocola, are you inside?"

"Chao, chao!"

Chocola came to the door smiling and looked at Silver. He turned his head slightly.

"Chao?"

"Chocola, this is Silver. Silver, this is my chao, Chocola."

"Good evening, Chocola..."

"Chao, chao."

The three of them entered the house and Silver placed the basket in the kitchen's table. They then went to the living room and Vanilla went upstairs. He sat down on the couch, looking at the nice decoration and the flowers adorning the windows. She came back carryng a large paper.

"Here is that map I was talking about. I'll make you some tea."

"Alright."

Silver looked at the map. Almost everything was unfamiliar to him, but at least the house was warm and cozy. After five minutes, Vanilla returned with two cups of tea.

"Be careful. It's hot." She said, while placing one one of them on the table in front of him.

"Chao, chao!"

"Oh, I didn't know you wanted one too, Chocola. Didn't you say yesterday you didn't like tea?"

"Chao! Chao, chao chaoo chaao."

"Oh, I see. You can drink from my cup."

She went to the couch and sat by Silver's side.

"How do you understand what he says?"

"I've had chao in the house for years, so at some point I had to learn what they're saying. Chao have a language just like us, and are almost as intelligent. It only has one word, but it's more based around the lengh of the vowels, the intonation... But I'm not that great at it. For example, right now Chocola said he had told me he doesn't like green tea, not tea in general. I didn't get that when he told me. My daughter has lived with chao since she was born, so she speaks better than I do."

"I get it..."

"Did the map help you?"

"Not really. I don't know where any of that is."

"You don't know what anything is in the map? Nothing at all?"

"No..."

"But where did you come from?"

"It's complicated..."

Vanilla raised an eyebrow.

"Complicated?"

"Listen..."

Silver started telling Vanilla everything about his past, the future he had come from and Eggman Nega. She listened to him during his whole story and remained silent when he finished speaking. Her cup was already empty.

"Do you believe me?"

She hesitated a bit.

"Yes."

"Really?"

"I see Sonic all the time. I've seen weirder things than that happen. It's a crazy world we live in, right?"

"It is."

"That sounds horrible. It's sad thinking that that's what will happen to our world."

"Well, that's kind of why I'm here. To try and change that."

"It's a noble mission. You said that relative of Dr. Eggman came here with you?"

"Yes. It seemed like he had been teleported with me. But if that's the case, he appeared somewhere else."

The two of them looked though the window. It was pitch black outside, with only a few fireflies floating around. Silver placed his empty cup on the table and got up. Vanilla looked at him, still sitting down.

"Where are you going?"

"It's late. I should go look for Eggman Nega. Thank you for the tea."

He walked towards the door, adjusting his gloves. Vanilla quickly got up and walked in his direction, placing her hand on his shoulder.

"I'm not letting you leave at this time! Especially without eating! Stay here for one more day."

"I really can't. Eggman is out there."

"But you won't be able to find him in the dark like this. Plus, you'll do better looking for him when you're well rested and with your stomach full."

"I appreciate it, but I'm afraid he'll do something bad during the night."

"He must be lost just like you if you were teleported to a random place like this. And I'm sure that Eggman Nega sleeps too."

"Well, that's true..."

"Stay here just one more day. I'll make you dinner."

"Fine, if you insist..."

He walked back into the living room and sat down looking through the window, wondering where Nega was and if staying with Vanilla was truly a good idea. He started thinking out loud.

"Why was I even leaving? I don't know where to go."

After just a few minutes, the smell of good food started to fill the warm room. His head started tilting to the side and before he could tell, he was asleep.


	7. Chapter 7 - Great Minds Think Alike

Midnight. He walked through the dark corridors until he reached a large room, with a big glass window. It was too dark to see what was inside. There was an old man working on something in a table in front of it.

"Are you finished?"

"You asked that five minute ago. Of course I'm not finished."

"How long will it take then? You've been here since what? Six, seven?

"Perfection takes long, my friend."

"Then it's better be really perfect."

He walked around some more.

"Where's Sonic."

"How would I know, do you think I have a cristal ball?"

"Don't talk to me this way, you wouldn't exist if it wern't for me!"

More silence. The man who was working finally said something.

"Can't you turn on these ligths. It's not easy to work in this darkness."

The other man picked up a communicator.

"Orbot, Cubot, whoever's there. Turn on the lights. The weak ones. I don't want to be noticed."

Suddenly, the lights turned on at max brightness, almost blinding the two. It was impossible to see anything.

"I SAID WEAK!" He shouted

Some five seconds later. The lights started turning off slowly until getting pretty low. It was not a lot of illumination, but it made it possible to see the mechanical hard-edged sillouette behind the glass panel. There were at least ten cables connecting to it and holding it in place. There seemed to be pieces missing.

"Now, that's much better. After I finish these, do we just apply them and then we're done?"

"Yes, I've already finished all of my parts."

He waited a bit more while his complanion worked, making a metal plate of some sort.

"How did your trip here go?"

"It was ok. I had a few... inconveniences."

"What do you mean?"

"I have my own Sonic to take care of where I live, Ivo."

"I doubt he's as much of an inconvenience as mine is."

"You can trust me he is just as good of a fighter. But he's predictable. It was easy to fool him."

"Fool him?"

"Yes. I knew he'd probably come bother me while I was using your old time travel machine, so I prepared a few robots to fight him."

"Did he beat them?"

"He would've. I didn't even put any effort into those. But I said he's predictable and I know him well enough. He just jumped into me, grabbed my coat and tried to come with me as I knew he would. Very typical of a brave hero type who acts before he thinks. In other words, stupid people."

"Ha! I know a few like this."

"I programmed the machine to take two travellers. One to the exact same place: this base, and the other to Seaside Hill."

"Did you send him to a different time too?"

"Can the machine even do that?"

"As it is now, no. But I thought maybe you would've modified it."

"There was no time for this."

"Funny coming from a man who had a time machine in his hands. Admit already you just couldn't do it."

Both of them were silent for a while. Ivo couldn't see it since the two had their backs turned to each other, but Nega had an annoyed face. He opened his mouth a bit as if he were starting to say something, but decided not to. After wandering around in circles a bit more, Ivo asked something that had been bugging him.

"You said you programmed the machine for two people. What would have happened if he hadn't come with you?"

"The machine would have probably tried to recognize me as two people and sent part of me to a place and part to another. It would have been the end of me."

"Were you really willing to risk that?"

"I knew he'd do it. Don't you know Sonic as well as yourself?"

"Of course I do. It's been years of plans against him."

He walked around some more impatiently. It was already almost 1 a.m.

"Well... I think I'm done."

"Finally."

"What do I do with them?"

"Just leave them there. I'll ask one of those two idiots to take them inside the room in the morning." Ivo pointed to the room behind the glass.

The two fo them walked towards the door until the Nega stopped. He looked back.

"What's the matter?"

"I could swear I heard him whisper."

"That's impossible. He's not even complete yet."

"Are you sure you don't want to turn his cables off?"

"Yes. It must have been your imagination. If not, then his speakers must be faulty, they're too old. Plus, even if he did say something, he obeys me, so there's no need for worries."

The two men walked out of the door and it closed behind us. Even on the corridors, Nega could swear he heard the low, robotic voice whispering something again, but after a while convinced himself he had just been working until too late and went to his bedroom. A robot that wasn't even finished, full of missing parts speaking. It was indeed a dumb idea. He laid down on his bed relieved and quickly forgot the voice, thinking about the plan he would have the chance to execute the next morning.

"This will be your end, Sonic... and Silver. I don't care if it's more work for Ivo, I want you gone. And I brought you to this time for a reason."


	8. Chapter 8 - It's All Just A Bad Dream

"Come on already!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming... What time is it?"

"2:36 a.m."

"Aren't we supposed to do that during the morning?"

"We were, but Eggman asked us to do it now. He said he changed his mind and we should do it as fast as possible to gain time."

Cubot sighed. Working was always bad, but in the middle of the night it was even worse.

"What is he thinking? I may be a robot but I need rest too..."

"The worst part is that this plan is not even going to work. We've been with him lng enough to know that. I don't get why he still tries."

The two floated down the corridor silently until Orbot stopped in front of the elevator. Cubot continued on for a few meters until he realized he'd left his companion behind.

"Are we going into the elevator?"

"Yes. The room only has an entrance from below."

"But we need to get all of those metal plates before that."

"Ah... I forgot. Go get them while I wait here."

"Alright..."

Cubot went to the large room Eggman Nega was in. It was too dark to see anything. Luckily for him, his eyes had a lantern function. He turned them on.

"Ah, much better. Here they are"

The robot picked up the metal plates on the table and turned back, going to the door, but stopped and looked at the glass window, muttering.

"You're lucky to be sleeping right now, you know...?"

The cables were loose, and there was no one to be seen inside the room. Cubot left and rushed to the elevator.

"Finaly. What took you so long?"

"Orbot, there's no one there."

"What?"

"There's no one in the room."

"You're probably seeing things. He has pieces missing and can't function properly yet. There's no way he'd break free. Lets go."

The two entered the elevator, Cubot still worried. It went down slowly until they reached the floor below. The doors opened and they walked down another corridor.

"There it is. The latter leading to the room."

"Alright..."

Cubot didn't move.

"Come on, don't be a coward."

"You go first."

"Alright."

Both robots climbed the latter, Orbot going first, until they reached a metal trapdoor. He opened it and they went in.

"Close it."

"Ok."

Cubot closed the trapdoor carefully. Normally, he did things very recklessly, but he felt afraid.

"It's dark, I'll turn on my lanters on low, wait a second..."

"Didn't Eggman say we're not supposed to flash lights around him?"

"I think that's only when he's ready. Plus, it's just bright lights that are a problem."

He turned on his lantern and looked over to where the sillouette was supposed to be.

"It's... it's really gone..."

Now Orbot was scared as well. He looked everywhere on the room until seeing the ceiling vent opened.

"Cubot... Let's get out of here..."

"Should we tell the boss?"

"I don't know, I just want to go to bed right now."

The two opened the trapdoor and rushed to their dorms. They prayed it had all been a bad dream and in the next morning they'd wake up the their boss shouting, telling them to go bring the metal plates to the dark room behind the glass...


	9. Chapter 9 - Shine in the Dark

"Blaze! Wake up!"

"Ah..."

Blaze slowly opened her eyes. They weren't used to the darkness yet. She and Marine had found a small cave they could sleep in before finding Sonic. They had been looking for him all day.

"What's wrong, Marine?"

"I saw something cross the sky. Like a light."

"It must have been a comet. Now go back to sleep."

"It wasn't a comet! It was going up and then went down again! It looked like it was falling and I think it landed there!"

Marine pointed in the direction of a forest. Blaze got up and looked outside. It was raining a bit.

"Alright... Do you want me to go check what it was?"

"No! I want to go check! I can do this!"

"At least let me go with you then. It's dark outside and I think even with this rain I can light up a small flame in my hands."

The two walked out. Blaze put her hands close to her chest, where the rain, which was falling in the direction of their backs due to the wind, wouldn't reach it, and lit up a little flame. It was much easier to see now. They walked to where Marine had pointed, with her going in front of Blaze. As soon as the forest started getting denser, she started to walk more slowly, occasionaly stopping and flinching when she stepped on a stick or saw a frog.

"Marine, are you scared? I can go first if you'd like."

"I'm not scared! I'm just..."

Suddenly the two saw a shadow move in front of them.

"Who's there!?"

"Marine, don't shout..." Blaze said in a low voice, while putting out the flame she was making.

They heard a quiet noise. It sounded like someone stepping. But they were heavy footsteps. Blaze ducked behind a tree and made a sign with her hand for Marine to come over. Marine hesitated a bit, but followed. She felt genuinely afraid, even if she didn't want to admit it.

"Blaze... can we just go back?"

Blaze didn't answer. She looked at where they'd heard the sound, still hiding. She could see someone standing and looking around.

"There's someone there. Stay here."

Blaze got up slowly and started walking in the person's direction, without making a sound. Marine just stayed behind the tree, not daring to move.

"Hey, you."

It looked at her. She saw nothing more than two red, shiny eyes.

"Who or what are you?"

It didn't answer. She made another flame, and now could see the whole person... or thing standing in front of her, and gasped. Blaze prepared herself for battle, and knew she had to protect Marine.

"Metal Sonic..."


End file.
